Panda House — Restaurant in Danbury

Situated at the back end of 'Restaurant Row', Panda House has been serving the local Danbury community their spin on Asian cuisine for over a decade.

Here's the problem, and perhaps it's me, but when it comes to Asian cusine, I've been spoiled. Like, really, really spoiled. This results in me being very picky, and sometimes downright harsh, on my Asian cuisine reviews. And unfortunately for Panda House, they did not avoid my crosshairs.

The decor is flat - neither bad nor good. It's just boring; a combination of bland minimalism mixed with misplaced functionality. It looks as if the establishment moved into the space without altering anything from the previous tenet. While the chairs were quite comfortable, there were many things about the set-up of the establishment that left me guessing whether it was a glorified take-away restaurant or a understated sit-down establishment. Also, it was quite dark inside, despite there being many, many windows.

As for the food... where do I begin? Perhaps it's just me, but lettuce... in Wonton Soup? I've eaten at quite a number of Asian restaurants, and I have never had lettuce in my Wonton Soup. Personally, I did not care for the additional greens, but the Wontons in the soup were excellent. The soup base was a little bland and lacked seasoning. Like many Asian restaurants, this one also offered multiple cuisines - Japanese, Chinese and Thai (the Asian trifecta). Now, what I HATE about this is that while you have the opportunity to do one thing REALLY well, you opt to do three things just 'meh' to say that you offer them. Why?! What's wrong with just offering one style of cuisine?! KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK WITH ONE!!! Don't shuffle through life half-heartedly!!! I ordered a sushi roll as an appetizer, and I got approximately six pieces - a perfect amount for an appetizer. The fish, avocado and cucumber were fresh, but the rice was underseasoned and ultimately added a very flat flavor to the sushi. The main dish came recommended, I believe the waitress called it 'Chicken Amazing'. Unfortunately with a name like that, it puts a lot of pressure on the dish to be exactly ss advertised... 'amazing'. Sadly, it was not. I feel the dish should have been called 'Chicken Alright'. The heavy vinegar and hot tomato base combined with sesame oil and very salty soy sauce reminded me of ketchup mixed teriyaki marinade. There were the occasional water chestnut slice and the even rarer baby corn ear mixed with pepper and onions, served hot with velveted chicken. It was 'alright' and I ate most of it, but to be honest, I would not order it again. Two Maki sushi rolls, two lunch specials, two soups (included with the lunch specials) and hot tea (which was actually quite nice) came to about $35.

I'm not certain I'd come back - I'm actually quite surprised that the rating is as high as it is - perhaps I came in on an off day? Local patrons seemed quite happy with their meals, so who am I to say the local palate isn't satisfied? As for me and my snobbish tongue, I'll try other local places first...

Don't come here for dinner.

Food isn't bad, pork lo mein had a hair more oil than most places but it wasn't too oily and flavor was mid. Spicy salmon roll was good, had a delightful unexpected crunch, maybe from some tempura? Or the nori itself?

The issue here is that there is five people working but only one serving the multiple tables, and all 5 are seated, looking towards the sushi station and their back turned to all the tables. And they are eating their dinner all at the same time.

So I waited... and waited... and waited... and my empty glass was never filled and I was never able to order a second sushi roll. By the time someone came by, literally almost ten to fifteen minutes later I was pretty irritated and it is for that reason I am leaving this review.

Because they left me hungry and thirsty and with a ton of time on my hands.

Do not come here during a meal time because they will all take their break together. Which is ironic, because when else would I want to come to a restaurant??

Edit : since no one came, I got up to leave and the waitress acted surprised that I didn't order more food since I held on to the menu. A clear sign I should be checked on at least, I dunno, every ten minutes or so. I insisted on leaving and that's when I noticed there is no free refills on iced tea.

They don't even deserve a tip but I tipped $1 so they would know they did horrible.

Edit 2: since I was still hungry but was refused service basically, I went across the street to the supermarket and they have sushi that's just as good, with twice the amount of food for same price! And they don't ignore you here either!! Save your money and buy food from caraluzzis supermarket instead,...

My husband got sick twice already from the take out. First time I thought it was him since I didn’t eat anything and the second time we both ate and were both sick. We knew it was Panda house because it was the only thing we ate all day. We usually order from Zen if we are looking to eat Chinese/Japanese and the last couple of times I ordered from Panda for two reasons a) so I can try it myself and b) the restaurant is in closer proximity than Zen. The food looks sloppily prepared and tasted strange/bland. I would hate to see their prep kitchen. You feel guilty for eating it afterwards. Stay away and protect your family!!!!! Hopefully the owners take responsibility and resolve their huge quality issue before there is a real lawsuit on their hands or even worst someone loses their life. I’m sure most of you have read about food poisoning or even experienced it, which means there is bacteria present. What type of people are we dealing with here? Shouldn’t have to put even one star when reporting food poisoning I want everyone to...